Emergency help for Christa Pike after her botched execution on September 30 was delayed by confusion among first responders and Tennessee prison officials, according to 911 dispatch recordings reviewed by The Associated Press.
The recordings show that precious minutes elapsed as officials and responders tried to determine whether a request for emergency help in the execution chamber was legitimate. The first call came in at 8:40 p.m., and it was more than half an hour before prison officials affirmed it was legitimate.
Confusion over emergency call
“Per supervisors here .... we have been informed it is a false call,” one unidentified person says at 9:03 p.m. “There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.”
Four minutes later, a responder reported: “Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people.”
It wasn’t until 9:11 p.m. that prison officials affirmed the call for help was legitimate, the calls show.
Execution and aftermath
Pike, 50, was due to be executed on Wednesday September 30 but she survived two lethal injections of the drug pentobarbital. She was rushed to hospital where medical staff attempted to save her life. Pike was set to be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.
At the age of 18, Pike lured her classmate Colleen Slemmer into an isolated area of the University of Tennessee campus and killed her in January 1995, after believing Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend. Pike's boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and their friend Shadolla Peterson were also convicted of participating in Slemmer's murder.
Pike's lawyers said the inmate had been shackled to the hospital bed in a heavily guarded room and she felt "confused and angry". Speaking to the press outside the Tennessee court house, her lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters Pike was "very aware that the state tried to execute her". Spivey said Pike asked two questions as soon as she woke up: "Where am I and who are you?"
Recovery and legal appeal
On Thursday, she was said to be walking around her hospital room just days after waking up following her botched execution. It is believed a ruptured vein caused most of the lethal pentobarbital drug given to Pike to accumulate in her tissues, preventing the fluids from entering her bloodstream.
On Saturday, after being discharged from hospital, Pike's lawyers said: "She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances." They added: "She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery."
Pike's attorneys were appealing for her to be taken off death row and have her punishment downgraded to life in prison following her botched execution.
